Sonic Adventure 3  Flame of Eternity
by AbstractReality-FF
Summary: Sonic's journey to a new world goes completely awry with the return of Eggman, and powerful new villians...  The rewrite of this story, now better than ever.
1. The Transformation

Prologue Pt. 1 – The Transformation

"Hey, Knuckles, are you sure this is gonna work while the emeralds are still far away?" Sonic asked, looking upwards at the sable-colored, danger-filled sky. The glowing moon shined off his sapphire fur, slicked down from years of blistering speed record acquisitions. All eyes were on him as he walked alongside Knuckles, the red echidna, to the glimmering, giant green Master Emerald.

Knuckles, eyeing a distant, glowing object in the sky replied, "I don't know… but it's worth a try." He then shook a fist at the white mini-sun beside the moon, yelling, "Stupid Eggman! This is all your fault!"

"Cool it, Knuxie, or we all gonna die," Rouge, the ivory-colored, black-winged bat sternly scolded Knuckles. "We can't afford you screwing this up by getting angry-"

"WHAT!" Knuckles screamed. "How could you say I'm gonna screw something up when you let Eggman get three Chaos Emeralds!"

"Let him get MY emeralds? Are you crazy? That guy came in with his robots twenty deep-"

"Guys, we're running out of time!" Tails interrupted, pointing at the ever-growing white orb in the sky. "There's no time to argue now about who gave up what emeralds!"  
He earned a mean glare from both Knuckles and Rouge.

"Look, Tails is right," Sonic spoke up, coming to his defense. Jumping on the top facet of the glowing Master Emerald, he added as he looked up at the constantly-expanding light, now more luminescent than the sun's reflection gleaming off the waning crescent moon, "We gotta figure out how to get me up there so I can stop that time thingy that Eggman created!"

"And save the world," Cream, the short-statured brown and cream-colored rabbit declared in her high voice as she stood beside her best friend Amy, and Cheese, her chao.

"Chao-chao!" Cheese echoed, nodding and floating in agreement.

Sonic took a quick glance at Amy, the pink hedgehog who wore and almandite-colored, outward-flaring dress. Hmm… she's sure have been quiet lately… wonder what's up with her.

Knuckles, finally semi-calm again, beginning to put his hands on the colossally large emerald, explained "I don't know if this'll work, but it's worth a shot."

Touching a side of the precious jewel, he closed his eyes as he recited the legendary story behind the existence of the emeralds. "Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The seven servers are the Chaos Emeralds, and the controller is the Master Emerald."

The glow from the green emerald slightly intensified as he recited those words. A mild breeze picked up around Knuckles and pushed his quills upwards to the sky.

"Rather it be a pure soul that uses its powers for good, or dark forces manipulating its powers for evil, one must have a strong spirit in order for the emeralds to respond to their controller." After saying this, Knuckles lifted his head to the sky and roared, "Great Master Emerald, send us your infinite power to save the world!"

The Master Emerald temporarily flashed and returned to its normal state. Sonic was still standing there, looking at himself in the emerald's reflection…  
No change.

"I can't get enough power from the emerald by myself!" Knuckles turned his head back to the watching group, saying "I'm gonna need you guys' help on this one!"

"But what do we do, Knuckles?" Tails asked. "You're the only one that we know who can control the Master Emerald beyond logic. How in the world are we supposed to help?"

"Yeah, Mister Knuckles…" Cream shakily added, becoming more fearful of the cobalt-white orb now larger than the moon above, "we're not as powerful as you are. And Mister Shadow said that Eggman will eventually destroy us all! Please, do something!"

"Cream, you can't have any doubts in your mind while doing this," Knuckles replied. He commanded to all of them while jerking his head to motion them closer, "Guys, come over here and put your hands on the emerald!"

"Fine by me," Rouge swiftly answered, becoming the first one besides Knuckles to hold the side of the emerald.

"Don't get any ideas, bat-girl," Knuckles sharply muttered, looking sternly at her.  
Sonic looked around as all his friends surrounded him. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Rouge, longtime friends and close companions, were there to push him further… to push him beyond the limit…  
To help him attain his super form.

"All you guys have to do is concentrate, and believe… put the thing that empowers you the most through your life in your mind, and let it take over," Knuckles instructed all the others around the emerald. "Let the power of your will soar, and allow the power of the emerald go through your mind, body and spirit. Believe that we can succeed and stop that Eggman, once again."

"Right, Tails answered, closing his eyes first. Advanced technology and engineering were at the forefront of his mind. Tails wanted to be widely known for the innovations and concepts he brought into existence. He also wanted to have his own shop, even if it was a small specialty shop.

"Okay," Cream said, also closing her eyes. She wanted her and her chao to have all the toys and candy in existence, so they can have for their own and share with the world; this was her plan to end world hunger.

"No problem," Rouge replied to Knuckles, following suit. Her empowering wishes were more selfish, but still powerful nonetheless. She thought of more material possessions than she could possibly handle, ranging from clothing, makeup and perfume, to cars, houses, nightclubs and the most valuable gems, jewels and apparel in existence.

Knuckles also proceeded to close his eyes, thinking about the many legends of his tribes he swore to upkeep and the duty inscribed in his blood… Protect the Master Emerald, at all costs…

Amy, with her eyes still focused halfway on Sonic, forced the thought of him and her being together, happily married. But something was nagging her. She looked around at the other four guys, wondering if she seen this before somewhere. She could've sworn that she reheard every detail, from the argument down to the growing star-like object in the sky, from somewhere in her thoughts or dreams…

The breeze came along again, now stronger than ever before. Sonic, now feeling more energy from below him covered his emerald-colored eyes with their eyelids as he bowed his head. He clenched his fists and put them to their sides, thinking about the world being at peace once again.

Amy gasped as her quills and dress swayed in the updraft. She saw seven faint, multicolored neon light orbs surround them. The ruby, ocher-yellow, emerald-green, azure-blue, sapphire, plum-violet and platinum spheres of light, representing the seven Chaos Emeralds that were in space, slowly circled them all, leaving trails of energy and light behind them as their intensified. She saw Tails' two long, bushy tails and hair strands flicker in the air as if he was flying, Knuckles' red dreadlocks go amuck in the wind, having their own way of coping with the excessive air motions, Cream's long ears shoot almost completely upward, and Rouge's bat wings partially fold as they waved.

The emerald representatives swirled faster and faster, closing in around the now gleaming blue Sonic. Almost-there… I can feel it. Just one more push…  
He started to feel the power of one… two… three… four… five… six Chaos Emeralds, awaiting the last rush of energy that constantly eluded him.

Amy, noticing the faint movement and dim, pallid light from afar, disregarded it as her eyes were now glued to Sonic's. This was a rare time that she could witness the golden transformation of her first love, and she wasn't about to miss any of it.

The emerald orbs shone white, right before they were absorbed into Sonic's body. Instantly, his eyes opened.

Amy saw with her own aquamarine-jade colored eyes… Sonic's naturally emerald pupils spattered in its negative and opposite color…  
They were red. Carmine red.

After a split second of his eyes changing colors in front of her, a blast of wind blew the other five back a couple of inches a blinding light coming from him encapsulated the whole area. Sonic's downward-swept quils instantly flipped upwards as his deep blue fur was blue no more… it faded into a topaz yellow color instantaneously.

Amy, squinting through the whole thing, nearly got herself blinded by the light as her pupils struggled and strained to adjust to the brilliant and powerful shine coming from Sonic. "S-Sonic?"  
His crimson eyes pierced right through her. There he floated, on top of the now grayed-out, iridescent sage stone, staring at her. She held her hand out towards him, not wanting to believe this at all.  
Super Sonic. The return of her golden knight in shining armor.

He, in all of his golden glory, turned around and ruffled Tails' head. He gave a fist pound to Knuckles and said nothing, nodding in thankfulness and receiving a nod in return. He went over to Cream and tussled her ears as he patted Cheese on its head, saying to them, "I'll handle this… everything's gonna be alright now." He gave a thumbs-up and nodded at Rouge, who emulated him at once.  
He did all of this before going back over to the flabbergasted Amy, clasping one of her hands with both of his.

She couldn't tell whether it was by sheer attraction, affection or just pure power… A surge of energy went through her like lightning as their hands touched, scaring her silly.

"Well Amy, looks like it's time to save the world again," Sonic spoke with a more commanding but still lighthearted voice. As he let go of her hand, he thought, She must not be ready yet… Oh well, time to go!  
Sonic leaped high into the air, leaving a streak of gold as he blasted upwards off the emerald. Pumped full of limitless energy and adrenaline, he whooshed left and right, and as quick as he appeared, he was gone, but not without signing his name and symbol in the air.  
"Whooooooooo-hooooooooooo!" he screamed, before easily breaking the sound barrier.

"Wow…" Tails wondered, looking at the spectacular light spectacle form in the sky.

"Woah…" Cream replied right behind him, holding Cheese in one arm and her gaping mouth with her free hand.

"Dang… Sonic never ceases to amaze me when he does that," Knuckles announced in a hushed voice.

"I totally agree on that one, echidna-boy," Rouge acknowledged, standing beside him, earning a silent nod of approval as they stood close beside each other, watching the display in the sky.

Amy, still shocked, looked at herself, half-expecting her own pink fur to turn golden, like Sonic's. Sure that she saw no change, she was still stunned by the pulse of energy going through her. It almost felt like an electric shock at first but smoothed out as a wave that tingled from the tip of her pointed ears to the extreme end of her toes. This constant, raging flux of energy seemed to even out for awhile, but she didn't want to figure out what it was; she was too frightened.

"Hey Amy, are you okay?" Tails asked, a bit worried about her.

"Y-yeah, Tails," she shakily responded." "I just hope Sonic will be alright."

"Hmph… looks like he's at it again," the black and crimson-colored hedgehog, Shadow, muttered to himself silently, standing alone, plenty of yards away from the altar of the Master Emerald on Angel Island, watching them all. He came, knowing that he was the missing seventh and final link to the faraway Chaos Emeralds. What drove him to help out was Amy, reminding him of his purpose and promise he kept fifty years ago to Maria… The promise to become the protector of all humanity, and the powers and abilities endowed to him to carry out that behemoth task was enough for the final push of power for Sonic.  
Looks like the doctor is really asking for trouble…  
Shadow decided to stay away from the other guys' sights, because he didn't want to disturb them with his presence… besides, he didn't need the extra attention or anybody bothering him right now; he had his own problems to take care of.  
Looking at the trail that Sonic left in the sky, he shook his head as he internally remarked, How typical of Faker… show-off. With his arms folded, looking up at the gigantic ball of white fire, he said to himself, "Someone's gonna get a run for their money…"


	2. Great Peril

Prologue Pt. 2 – Great Peril

"No, no-no-no-NOOOO!" Eggman screamed, banging his fists on the haywire control panel. Half of the satellite's emerald power transformer system was internally fried by the spike of energy from the emeralds themselves. They sat behind a melting glass display case, white-hot. "These things always manage to screw something up! Rather it be Chaos, the Eclipse Cannon… NOW THIS!"

"Oh, no, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!" A blue and black servant robot hovered beside him, panicking in its shrill, synthesized voice. It was the only robot that survived the energy spike, given that it wasn't charging up in the energy station at the time

"Override the emergency shutoff valves, open a path up, do SOMETHING useful with your life instead of running around here like a chicken with its head cut off!" Eggman bellowed at his plastic slave.

"Master Eggman, all of the safety latches are electric and controlled wirelessly, and everything electricky and wirelessy is damaged beyond repair! I told you it wasn't a good idea to integrate-"

"Shut up and deactivate the Eon Breaker Laser!"

"But it won't work! I told you that you should've at least tested it out on something before doing this! You could've gotten the power from the power grid in Station Square-"

"What are you useful for!" Eggman interrupted, tapping the 'Abort All' button for the five hundred and thirty-fifth time. By the 579th time, the button jammed. Crap…

LASER SYSTEM NOW GOING INTO OVERCHARGE MODE. SURPLUS ENERGY LEVELS UNSTABLE, CURRENTLY AT 47,925,240,231% OF NORMAL LEVELS.  
The light bulbs that were still on continuously flashed and burst from electrical overloads as the computerized male voice from the control panel droned on.  
TEMPERATURES OF THE POWER CORE EXTREMELY HOT, ESTIMATED AT 47,000 DEGREES KELVIN. 55,000. 84,000. 172,000. 349,000. 766,000.

"I gotta get outta this thing before it blows-" Eggman jerked at an escape hatch as he spoke…  
It didn't budge at all.  
"Gaaaaaaaaah! STUPID LEVER!" He proceeded to put all of his weight on it to slide the lever downward, but to no avail. Then he heard what he had feared…  
The self-destruct warning.

The emeralds, barely visible because of the extremely brilliant light they gave off, started to burn holes in the core panels. Eggman, seeing this, tried to go double time, straining himself to the best of his ability to break out of that room and into an escape pod, where his Egg Floater was waiting. "Please open up, please, please, PLEEEEAAAASE!"

Suddenly, from out of an air duct, Super Sonic broke into the control room. Shining in gold-awesomeness, he asked as he hovered in air, "Eggman… you haven't learned at all, did you?"

"Sonic! Get me outta here!" Eggman rammed the door twice with his shoulder while looking at him.

"Yes, please get me out of here! Forget the fat man!" his robot resounded, all mechanical-like.

"Forget WHAAAT!"

Sonic turned around and blasted through the melting protective glass case. Screwing with the emeralds' power again, expecting a different result every time… is this guy insane, or is this guy insane?  
Ignoring the heat, Sonic flew downwards inside the deep core, piercing holes through the massively-large cylinder, allowing the immaculate accumulation of energy from the emeralds to vent out. But, the faster he rammed through the long cylinder's steel, the more energy piled on top of it, replacing the loss entirely… twofold… every time.

CAPACITY LIMIT BROKEN, INTENSE DISCHARGE IS IMMINENT. ALL PERSONNEL, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY FOR SAFETY PURPOSES.

"SOOOOOOOONIIIIIIIIC!" Eggman screamed to the top of his lungs. "DON'T LET ME DIE HERE!"

Sonic, coming from deep inside the core, panted as he said, "What did you do… this time… Eggman? Trying to… build something… to change the world by using time… and send me and my friends to another timeline… so you can build your own empire, huh? Don't you ever think about how ludicrous your schemes are?" He began to lose a bit of his gold luster from the attempt to shut down Eggman's machine.

"Well…" Eggman scratched his head, thinking.

"He doesn't ever think about the consequences of his plans or what I think of his ideas-"

"SHUT UP or it's to the junkyard for you when I make it back!" Eggman sneered at his robot.

Sonic just shook his head.

"That doesn't matter now… Just get us out of this thing before it explodes!"

Sonic ripped off the escape door, shoved Eggman into the Egg Floater and gave it a kick, giving him a boost towards Mobius.

DISCHARGE IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS.

"Oh, crap!" Sonic exclaimed, seeing the stem of the core shoot out random rays of pure white energy. He wheeled around in space on the outside of the satellite laser weapon and pushed it as hard as he can away from planet Mobius. As he flew to its insanely-long barrel, he grabbed hold on the side of it, using its own inertia to try and spin it around the other way.

FIVE… FOUR… THREE-

Sonic spun it around plenty of times before letting it go; as soon as the ten-foot diameter barrel swung away, a plume of energy, coming from the core, went through the metal, slamming into Super Sonic, rendering him unconscious. A second later, he was blue again.

ONE…MARK-!

The ball of energy at the tip of the laser shrunk and imploded, sending energy all throughout the massive space structure, creating a wide blast of unfathomably intense energy, consuming everything in its wake, including Sonic's limp body…  
The unending explosion rapidly expanded, overtaking the moon, and the still-incomplete Space Colony ARK. The infinitely-potent energy blast was so powerful, it changed the very color of space… turning its murky blackness to a jelly purple color, then electric blue, then the cerulean of Chaos… The energy wave continued to rush forward, towards the planet below it…


	3. Infinite Cataclysm

Prologue Pt. 3 – Infinite Cataclysm

Everyone gasped as they witnessed the huge explosion.

"Noooo! Sooooniiiiiicc!" Amy cried, desperately running in the direction of the blast. Rouge held her back from going any further.

"Sorry, hon, it's no use…" Rouge held the wailing Amy by her shoulders. Her wails quickly turned into sobs and tears as Rouge pulled her in. She sighed, feeling pity for the crying young woman.

"Oh, no…" Cream squealed, looking in the sky, along with her mewing chao.

"Damn…" Knuckles whispered, only imagining the mass devastation going on up above.

"Oh my… god…" Tails added, staring at the sky, unable to calculate the scope of the explosion. As soon as the sky started to turn fuchsia, he backed away. "Uhh, g-guys?"

"Tails, what's going on?" Cream asked, scared for her life.

Shadow, from out of nowhere, skates close to them, yelling, "It's expanding! We got to get everyone the hell out of here!"

"Shado-woah!" Rouge got scooped up in one of his arms before she could protest. Amy, crying silently, looked up at Shadow sadly as he carried both of them away.

Knuckles grabbed Tails and Cream with no hesitation, running behind him, trying to catch up. "Hey, Shadow! How'd you get here so fast?"

"I was here the whole time," Shadow responded with a tinge of annoyance in his voice as he jumped over the ruins and grinded on the side of ancient temple walls. Holding both Amy and Rouge in his arms, he left a burning yellow trail of fire from his air shoes as the sky slowly turned magenta… violet… lavender… sapphire…

"It's gaining on us!" Knuckles screamed, looking up at the expanding color of the sky. The horrified cream hugged tightly on to Knuckles' left side, with cheese latched onto her wavering right ear. Tails, on Knuckles' right, helped propel them forwards by using his twin tails.

"Geez, Shadow, could you go easier on the grip?" Rouge complained. "I'm almost choking as it is with these tights! Please don't make it worse than it already is."

Shadow didn't respond, giving her a cold, expressionless look.

Rouge turned away and looked back at the faraway Master Emerald, becoming consumed by the whiteness… "Well, so much for the biggest jewel of them all."

"Aren't you thankful that I saved your life?" Shadow harshly questioned. Still looking forwards, he continued, "Don't you think of anything else other than jewels and money?"

"B-But-*sigh*…" Rouge volunteered to say no more.

Selfish… at a time like this… Moving and thinking off adrenaline, Shadow ducked under low-hanging trees and jumped high into the air. Knuckles, having Tails and Cream on his back now, punched right through them.

"Mister Knuckles," Cream said in her tinny voice, looking back at the constantly growing light, "are we gonna die?"

"Cream-" Tails started to interrupt.

"Tails, it's alright," Knuckles cut him off before he could continue. "It's a slim chance that we might survive this… we'll make it out of this some way."

"If we die," Cream questioned further, "do we get to go to heaven?"

There was silence between all of them, for which seemed like an eternity. Shadow, overhearing her question, started to think hard on the subject.

Knuckles, trying his best to come up with an answer, caught a lucky break and a horrible situation at the same time when Rouge yelled, "Guys, looks like the end of the road here!" There she pointed, was the edge of a cliff, hanging over nothing but water.

Shadow slid the metal under his Air Shoes against the pebbles of the ruins, causing him to stop just enough to touch the edge of the cliff. Burnt rocks and granite tumbled down over the edge, falling for what seemed like days before they turned microscopic enough to trick the normal eye that it never existed. "Damn…"

"Give me a lift!" Knuckles, with both Cream and Tails on his sides, jumped the cliff; both Tails and Cream carried him over the deep sea below.

"Rouge, you take Amy and get out of here," Shadow urged, standing them upright.

"Wait!" Amy yelled, grabbing him by the shoulder.

Shadow turned around, giving her his attentive crimson eyes that bored right into her. "What is it, Amy?"

"Why'd you come back, Shadow? All this time you were gone-"

"I had to take care of my own problems…" he simply responded, not wanting to say more about the subject.

Amy, seeming to understand this, asked a different question. "How are you gonna make it across here?"

"Don't worry about that." Strangely, Shadow didn't seem to be annoyed by her many questions.

"What are we gonna do without you and Sonic? You can't just leave us here now!"

"Look, Amy, I came to save you. Sonic probably made it out alive somewhere. Now if you cherish your life, go." Shadow pushed Amy towards Rouge; not hard, just to get Amy's full attention. "I'll manage."

Amy looked on as he turned away from them… She tried to make out his enigmatic body language but couldn't. She tried to figure out if he used the word "you" in singular or plural version… she still couldn't figure that out. But she saw while he turned away, his face. Straddling between his usual anger…  
And affection.  
Shadow…?  
Amy felt Rouge's arms wrap around her as they began to soar away from the infinite cataclysm behind them. She stared down at the ever-disappearing Shadow, who made a quick glance back before hanging his head.  
He looked sad… and hurt.  
What? Does he… care?

We're going to need a miracle to get past this… Shadow's mind raged as he looked at his hands, halfway staring at the ground. Small pebbles began to move as the vibration from the incoming white energy wave inched nearer.  
Maria… My guardian angels… please save and protect us all from this… I know you can hear me out there…  
He slowly raised his head, staring at the surge of energy coming his way. He shut his eyes, lending his senses to his thoughts.  
If we all must die, please at least protect the one that reminded me of you, and the promise I made… Then I'll be comforted on my journey through Hell. I know I'll be forever unforgiven for being created… and for killing those innocent people… but if I can be known as the protector of all humanity for once in my life, I'll be able to rest with peace of mind. As he opened his eyes, he added, Hmm, almost forgot, please watch over Faker, the guy she's so madly in love with… Make sure he makes it out alright, along with the rest of them. He smiled at his nickname for Sonic.  
Focusing his eyes now on the chaos before him, he charged his own chaos energy around his hands, forcing the air around them to turn black… resulting only from the wrath of Black Doom, permanently ingrained in his artificially-made DNA. Holding his hands out, he braced for impact….  
Shadow winced from the pain of it slamming right into him, but he kept pain as the least of his worries, as he tried to stop it… His arms felt like they were on fire as he roared out in pain. It pushed him backwards defiantly as he struggled to stay in an erect standing position… The force of white knocked him clean off the cliff, engulfing him entirely.

-

"Tails, hurry!" Cream hollered, seeing the white sea come closer, traveling over, under, and through the water behind them. Tails, having his spinning tails already in overdrive, began to tire out, making the three descend and slow down.

"I-I can't-can't go on much-further!" Tails whimpered, unable to continue. He slumped down and fainted.

"TAILS!" Knuckles grabbed his yellow buddy's leg before he could plop into the water below. Seeing that Cream couldn't take their weight by herself, he commanded, "Carry Tails! I'll jump down from here!"  
He handed Tails to her and dived straight into the water from a couple of hundred feet above, making a huge splash. He quickly surfaced and swam behind them as fast as he could.

Rouge, seeing Knuckles down in the water as she caught up to him, asked, "Knuckles, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry about me! Save yourself!" Knuckles waved her off.

"I'm not going to lose you too! You're coming with me!" she defiantly retorted, grabbing his arm and flying off with both him and Amy in hand.

"Wha-" Knuckles sighed, letting her save him. He turned over to the downcast Amy, asking, "Hey, how's it hanging?"

Amy just shook her head.

"Look, Amy, I know the situation looks kinda bad now, but-"

"What do you mean, kinda bad!" Rouge snapped at him, cutting him off with pure urgency in her voice. "That thing is right behind us! We're gonna-wha-f-!"

A huge wave of ocean water engulfed them all, twirling them through and through in the water. Rouge was the first one to go, as she rose back up to gasp for air… It took her completely by surprise. Knuckles, trying to save Rouge from the imminent force, was caught in the rolling white flash, too.

Amy, drifting towards the bottom of the sea by choice, knew it was all over for her. Opening her arms as she accepted the fact, she closed her eyes…  
What's the whole point of going on, now? Sonic… he's gone… forever. Sorry, Cream for not being there for you anymore. Sorry, Shadow… although I was never able to fully understand you, you motivated me to try my best at everything I do, no matter how senseless it sounds to you… I know I've been a nuisance sometimes…  
I'm sorry, Sonic… for everything… for never leaving you alone, for never letting you go, for never trying to give up marrying you… I know you don't like me, but I was hoping that maybe you'll give me a chance. Now, that chance is gone… and you can live as free as you want, without having to worry about saving me from Eggman or me trying to get you to come on a date… I'm so sorry for all the times I followed you everywhere, even from the time you saved me in Little Planet… I was just so blind back then, and still am. God, I've been so delusional, all this time in my life! I tried as much as I could just to get your attention… now I realize that you just don't want me around. But as long as you're happy, I'll be fine…  
Seeing red, then white behind her eyelids, she squeezed them tight as the rumbling sound turned in to a roar of a freight train. She found it increasingly difficult to even clearly hear her own thoughts…  
I'm s-ry, So-c! If o-ly I w- a bi- -lder…

The white rush enveloped and overtook her quickly… It continued its path forwards, taking anything inside it.

-

"Tails, please wake up!" Cream pleaded, shaking him in her arms as she held his unresponsive body.  
"Chao-cha, chaoooo!" Cheese, joining in the effort of reviving him, pulled opened one of Tails' eyelids, seeing nothing but whites.

Tails, head rotating left and right, finally began to come to. "mmm… I love y-you… er-Wha, huh?" He vigorously shook his head away from his small coma.

"Please save us, Tails!" Cream squeezed him a bit too tight for a hug, making him squawk from the pressure. "I don't wanna go yet, Tails!"

"Chaoooo!" Cheese agreed, holding tight to Tails' arm.

"Can't-breathe-" Tails gasped for air as soon as she loosened up. Looking into her young, innocent, fearful eyes, he quickly snapped back to reality.  
"C-Cream?"

Streaks of tears lined her face. "Save us… I don't wanna die, Tails!"

"Cream, you're not gonna die…" he tried to assure her, not at all believing in his own lie. "We're gonna get through this, Cream… Everything'll be okay…"  
He knew this was the end. But seeing Cream in her helpless state as she squeezed him for dear life made him feel that he had to protect her from harm… instinctually… at any cost. In his thoughts, he hated Eggman for this, it was all his fault… Nobody deserved this fate, especially someone as innocent as Cream.

"It's coming for us!" She wrapped her arms snugly around his neck and curled up into a ball.

"Chaoooo!" Cheese screamed, getting in between them for safety.

Tails, with his back to the energy surge as he flew with his spinning tails, hooked an arm around her underside and held her head for cover. Cream buried her head deep in his white chest fur, feeling for that moment safe as his arms enveloped around her…  
The disaster looming behind them seemed to create a bond from desperation between them as it rushed closer. Tails brung his knees upward, trying his best to cover her away from it. Cream just wanted to stay alive, so bad… and it felt like she could, with him protecting her… She didn't want his clasp around her to end, ever…

Having Cream nestled so snugly in his chest not only reminded him of how fragile life can be, but also gave him some sort of empowerment and purpose… every warm tear that his snow white fur absorbed made him realize how precious life is… her life, in particular. His clutch around her stiffened, hearing the monstrous roar become even louder as his eyes shut closed. More than everything, he wanted her to live, even if it meant giving his own life. All the technology in the world didn't matter now…

The force felt like a blast of wind coming his way before it touched him. Tails cried out…  
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"  
Cream did the same. "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"  
"CHAAAAOOO- -!" The energy wave took them all, covering them in white nothingness.

-

Before long, the massive blast took over nearly the whole planet, covering it entirely in white. The moon and the Space Colony ARK already took that ride. But, suddenly the white light transfigured itself… and everything vanished, as if it was nothing there.


End file.
